And now, the appointment of Exxon CEO and pal to Putin, Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. Tillerson opposes the sanctions against Russia, and received the Order of Friendship award from Putin in 2012.

One has to ask – what the hell is going on, and why is Cheeto Jesus so pantingly in love with Russia? Why is Putin trying to help him, and why is CJ so obviously cozying up to a despot? Why are we getting only crickets from Republicans? WTF? (Sorry, Momma).

The advantages to Russia of a weak and compliant US are obvious – lifting sanctions against Russia and permitting Putin to complete his annexation of Crimea and all of Ukraine plus allowing a creeping expansion to reassemble the old Soviet Union is clearly one of Putin’s goals. Aggressive support of Assad in Syria and ensuring his longevity there strengthens Russia’s influence in the region, and lack of resistance by the former leader of the free world (the US), would lead to Russia’s dominance in the Middle East.

So, the advantages to Putin of CJ and company’s sucking up are obvious. What are the advantages to CJ? Well, those are obvious, too, especially to those of us who have been observing the transformation of our American democratic system to an oligarchy. Today, emboldened by a compliant Supreme Court, money equals speech. The more money you have, the louder your megaphone. Using corporate drafted legislation, civil rights are being pulled back, voting rights restricted, and the social safety net shredded. The tax code has already turned upside down, shifting the burden to the working class.

CJ has declared himself exempt from all norms and laws pertaining to conflicts of interest and even the Emoluments clause of the Constitution. His supporters (and the GOP) are simply ignoring these outrageous violations of laws and long established practice. He’s even maintaining his position as executive producer of his cheesy reality show, Celebrity Apprentice. For the first time in US history, the, uh…urp, president elect has turned ethics and traditions upside down and is using his new position to enrich himself and his family while making no bones about what he’s doing. And he’s getting away with it.

What CJ is setting up with Putin is a global kleptocracy where a small class of haves denies basic rights and resources to the have nots. Like Putin, he’s setting up a tight circle of supporters who wants to undo America as we know it and replace it with a 19th century style oligarchy where robber barons accumulate mass wealth while the masses work for crumbs. The advantage to us as an American society? Zero. The costs? Gigantic.

The shocking thing is that people are so ignorant, or so hate filled that now, apparently, they’re happy to just hand him the keys and stand by silently while he, his cronies, and Vladimir Putin accumulate mass wealth and power to everyone’s detriment.

Texas has become unrecognizable to me over the last 15 years. Now its happening to America.

Well, of all things, rabid Clinton hater Joe Walsh is calling for a Senate investigation into Russian interference with our elections, even going so far as to say the nation is more important than the party.

Emoluments clause? Donnie thought you said emollients and immediately thought of Rex. Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Stalingrad, Vlad was overheard saying, “emollients? I don’t think so my pretty little puppets.”

HRC capmpaign played by the rules and got hammered by constant lies and foreign intervention- in short wingnuts cheated and look like they will get away with it again. We need to push back LOUDLY, LONGLY and BIGLY.

Let’s not get too self righteous. Hillary didn’t play by the rules by packing the DNC, money laundering into super delegates campaign coffers and sabotaging Sanders. If she had played by the rules, your argument would be valid…her conduct undermines that position.

Not sure what all that means. If you mean me mentioning well documented activities by Hillary, DWS, money laundering through state parties, DNC staff sabotaging Bernie’s campaign, I’ll be happy to lead you by the hand. I’m well known as a long time Hillary hater; my candidate was Biden, but he got scared off by the DNC Hillary wall. Your candidate won; and you see what it got us.

And, if she had played by the rules we might not be in the mess we are in right now. If she had played by the rules the electorate would have either nominated Sanders or a Hillary Clinton that they trusted(since she ethically played by the rules) and the odds of one of those nominees being elected over Trump would have been enhanced since there would not have been a trust issue.

Since we are talking about fake news as a cause for the mess we are in I think it would be instructive to look at ALL the fake news that got reported this election season. Like the fake news that Sanders supporters became violent in Nevada:

Hear! Hear! El Jefe on clinton! Not only isn’t there much difference between the beltway parties, the dnc picks for leaders the same old leaders who could have done something about the Sanders theft but made their choice. It’s back to the old incestuous insider party with the dems now being dominated, subservient.
IMO, these cretins will change the rules enough to make overcoming them in 2018 even more difficult esp. if these present clinton supporters remain in charge.
I’m not confident that the average non-1%er who voted repug will wake up until their a$$e$ are handed to them. Unfortunately many non-repugs will also suffer. So, might as well suffer doing something positive fighting these evil (yes, a term used cautiously) people.

Now children, finger-pointing and tattling will not get us anywhere. Leave that at the doorstep and focus; did Putin hack EVERYTHING, or did he just hack the news?

Exit polls and pre-election polls show Hillary with a commanding lead all critical states. Maybe the “news hacks” were not so much designed to affect the election but to provide cover for election rigging?

Regardless of who ran for the Democrats, the point to remember is that we have treason occurring. Trump’s campaign clearly colluded with Russia by their own admission.

The World needs Putin dead now. Trump, Conaway, Manafort, and Bannon all need to face justice for their treason. If and when Trump takes office, I see persecution against his opponents orchestrated with the aid of Russia.

Yanno, Bernie recognized back 5 months ago that, for whatever reason, he wasn’t going to get the Dem nomination. He conceded to Hillary as the candidate, and strongly supported and campaigned for her.

It would be nice if y’all would do the same, instead of playing endless rounds of “If only”. Instead of perpetually picking at the scab, we need to heal our wounds and get stronger.

And though Hillary is regrettably, IMO, out of the game for the time being, Bernie is still in the Senate, and still a powerful advocate for our surviving agenda. He and the Dem Senators need our support, as well as some poking and prodding. Maybe focus on that?

Or pick up where the right wingers left off, and continue to demonize Hillary Clinton for another damned 30 years. I’m sure Donnie and his Cabinet of Doom will appreciate it. Your choice.

Complaining about the Clinton-Sanders thing is like cousins refusing to stop smacking each other with wiffle ball bats as the crazy neighbor is trying to mow them down with heavy equipment.

Donald Trump and his Game of Corporate Cannibals wants us fighting with each and peeing on ourselves with fright and eventual hunger. And if we keep bashing each other– he is well on his way to another win.

Lunargent,
I couldn’t agree more.
Our nation is in crisis, let’s get our act together.
Let the GOP have the circular firing squad.
If a more centrist conservative party evolves our country would benefit.
Nazis, KKK, tea party, oligarchs, et al aren’t conservative! They are bull dozers.
tRump is creating a bull dozer cabinet of people who are on record as wanting to destroy the departments or agencies they want to head.

a question that I hope is asked and answered.
With the ass’s love of NDA’s ( Non Disclosure Agreements) I am curious if he is demanding them of government employees?
Would they be “legal” if so?
Can he use power of President to demand NDA’s made out to him as an individual and could they be enforced? i.e. Intelligence briefer required to sign one before they are allowed to meet and brief him.
Would he use these NDA’s as his corpoate equivilant of the fuhrer pledge?
If he does could he pursue “leakers” in civil court for financial penalties while using the DoJ to create the case.
Inquiring minds need to know.

Generally, A party to an NDA cannot be compelled to keep secret information asked by a court or government agency. Those are excluded. Additionally, if one knows of illegality that is being or has been committed, that person is obligated to disclose it to law enforcement. An NDA cannot legally be use to conceal a crime.

Ken, no, I don’t think so. He’s no longer a private citizen, he’s the most public figure in the country. He can’t get NDAs from his briefer; violation of federal code. He can classify those briefings so no one has the clearance to know what’s in them, however.

I, along with 82% of Sanders supporters, shut up when Clinton clinched the election even though we felt that we had been cheated out of the nomination. Daily we learned of new treacheries such as HRC being fed debate questions and we kept our mouths shut. Why did we do this? We had been assured by Clinton, her campaign and her supporters that Clinton could win this election and we had enough fear of Trump that we put our grievances aside and did what we could to get a candidate we detested elected for one reason only, “she was better than Trump.” Well, the election is over now and Clinton didn’t win so there is no longer a need to hide our feelings. The behavior the DNC, DWS and HRC exhibited toward Sanders and his supporters was wrong. It was undemocratic and it was just bad politics.
If the Democratic Party wishes to be strong enough to fight back in 2018 and 2020 there is going to have be a whole lot of healing. And a whole lot of healing could be accomplished if someone within the Party hierarchy would acknowledge the wrongs committed and provide some assurances that changes would be put in place to prevent such actions from happening again.

What the Democratic Party needs, if it wishes to go forward successfully, is a little time spent on truth and reconciliation. Because, if we don’t address the outrage of the Sanders’ supporters, we will remain a fractured and weak party at a time when we need to be a cohesive, strong party. Truth and Reconciliation is the only means to accomplish this goal.

And we need to figure out who we are:

1. Are we new Democrats triangulating with Republicans? or
2. Are we traditional Democrats representing the working class?

Folks, the result of the election would have been the same if the Dems ran Mary, Mother of God. The R’s et al. were lashing back because of their racism (Obama) and sexism and even their unresolved hatred of Bill Clinton. Yes, he’s been out of office for some time, but the fact that he escaped conviction in impeachment really ground their sox. I live within a stone’s throw of The Hill and know whereof I speak. McTurtle’s opposition of 8 years was not based on the Democratic agenda. That was only a cover. His faction resented like Hell that there wasn’t White Man in the White House and the black man who made it to the oval office in their view should have been a butler.

My suggestion is that the D’s in Congress do not agree to a single unanimous consent request for anything ever.
Make it so that every action requires debate, vote interrupted by points of order and personal priviledge questions.
Pour sand in the gears until it shuts down.
Not allowing the government to function is the better alternative to allowing these cretins and traitors to get their grubby little paws on any of the levers of power.
No sec of state
No judges
not a single appointment or bill for anything.
Shut it down.

This election was stolen via gerrymandering, voter suppression, Russian hacking and FBI interference. Hillary has a commanding lead in the popular vote. No Democrat could have beaten Trump in the electoral college due to all of the above. It wasn’t a fair fight.
Maggie and Ken, I totally agree with you, but feel the need for a concrete positive course of action to combat this takeover of our democracy. The Resistance needs strategy.

I also vote for#2. I think the Democrats can do 2 things at once- honestly admit and repair the damage to Democrats from the unfair stuff done in the 2016 contest and- work together to win in 2018 and 2020.

charles said “Exit polls and pre-election polls show Hillary with a commanding lead all critical states. Maybe the “news hacks” were not so much designed to affect the election but to provide cover for election rigging?”

That was my first thought too. It’s not bad polling, it’s election rigging by the snacilbupeR, among other stuff.

I haven’t seen any evidence of election rigging. I think it’s entirely possible that the Democratic leadership is just really that out of touch with the working class.

Foreign interference in our election (and allegedly in the internal affairs of other nations as well) is the immediate problem, but we cannot lose sight of what this election should have taught us. If we don’t learn this lesson, the next four years will be so much wasted suffering, and I do not want to see that.

Annabelle Lee, it is entirely possible as you say, but it is entirely possible also that the Russian government hacked the election . They are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are probably both true.

To el jefe and charles r. phillips.
Is the transition team government employees or private?
would NDA’s apply to them?
I would question whether NDA’s do not protect things like tax fraud or not. It was stated that NDA’s do not apply to criminal actions yet drumpf used them a cudgel over anyone who was aware of his foriegn (Polish and Model agency) workers, accounting staff, trump university, etc and has gotten away with it.
So do we know that he isn’t trying to use them on gov. employees? if he gets them to sign one before they become a gov. employee ( appointed staff etc) would they apply?
And is the illegality of using them on gov. employees sufficiently known to prevent him from foisting them off on us?
after all the twit got away with a pocket veto by calling them “Signing Statements” illegal but if you own the judiciary and the congress has been neuter who is going to hold him responsible?

Well, Jefe, I basically agree with you re the danger of too much coziness w/Putin, but you seriously misinterpret the facts regarding Ukraine and Crimea. Those issues essentially arise from the eastward trek of NATO since the death of the USSR, and understandable Russian nervousness about troops and missiles literally next door. Please step away from “The Newspaper of Record,” and spend some time with serious journalists such as Robert Parry or Ray McGovern (& others) at Consortiumnews.com, Doug Bandow (Cato), John Pilger (The Guardian).

The use of NDAs is common in business. I’ve signed hundreds of them. In general they are VERY difficult to even enforce, and are used mostly to define damages should someone actually disclose confidential information. They are NOT intended to intimidate one into silence, especially when laws are broken. CJ spouting about NDAs is further confirmation to me that he has no understanding of how the world works outside of Cheeto land. If a federal employee divulges classified info, that’s a matter for the Justice Department and the Inspector General, not local courts in a civil suit. It’s all BS.

Burlington College – if it had gone the other way, Burlington College would rhyme with Benghazi. Along with 2-odd foot of oppo files, per published reports. So spare us all any further pearl clutching over politicians with feet of clay. Move on! Let each person’s personal experience of 2016 inform your future actions but for god’s sake stop looking at the accident wreckage and drive! We’re on the verge of an extinction-level event. We ain’t got time for this bullshit.

I watched that last night, and it left me deeply depressed. These are mostly good people with basic common sense. But they voted for the carnival barker anyway. For so many reasons, many of them valid, and some just desperation. But they’re already betrayed and discarded, before the charlatan even takes office. And they’ve moved the world closer to ruin in the process.

Lunargent- Yes, it is terribly depressing. The only good news is what you said, “These are mostly good people with basic common sense”. That means it is NOT hopeless.

We just have to all realize, as you pointed out, that these people made a stupid vote for many reasons, some valid and some based upon desperation. We have to start having these conversations among ourselves and with Trump voters. Trump is, indeed, a fiend in human form, but many of his supporters are just ordinary people who desperately want/need change. They are going to quickly learn the error of their ways and we need to be there to welcome them into the Democratic tent. That means no more name calling. We can make fun of Trump and name call him all we want but calling his supporters (who we hope to make supporters of our future candidate) is not the way to win friends and influence enemies. A lot of the Trump supporters were in the Democratic tent in 2008 and 2012 and we need to get them back where they belong.

We can survive this but to do so we have to start talking calmly and patiently with one another. We also need to learn how to have civil discourse on touchy subjects. Flinging insults accomplishes nothing but not discussing issues accomplishes nothing as well. We must learn what went wrong this time around so that it doesn’t go wrong again. And that means we have to encourage talk between Sanders supporters, Clinton supporters, and, yes, even Trump supporters, not so we can say “I told you so” or “Your candidate was no good; mine was the greatest” but so that we can say, “Aha, that is what went wrong this time and here is how we fix it for the next election.”

We have got to completely rebuild the Democratic Party. And, I would like to point out that it has needed rebuilding for many years, long before this election, so it’s current state cannot be blamed solely on Clinton or Sanders. Based upon what I’ve read the Party got in horrible debt in the 2010 and 2012 mid-terms and that debt caused a lot of poor behavior and bad judgment calls during the 2016 election. The Koch Brothers and Alec have been quietly stealing our state legislatures and governerships over the last 15 years or so and the majority of those bodies are now Republican. We have to get that changed.

So, we need to roll up our sleeves, realize that each and every one of us wants what is best for this country, COMMUNICATE, and get to work. We’ve got a Party to rebuild and some elections to win.

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Welcome to The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.

My name is Susan DuQuesnay Bankston. I live in Richmond, Texas, in the heart of Tom DeLay's old district. It's nuttier than squirrel poop here.

I am honored and privileged to know Miss Juanita Jean Herownself, hairdresser extraordinary and political maven. Since she does not have time to fiddle with this internet stuff, I type her website for her and you can read it if you want to. If you don't, she truly does not give a big bear's butt.

A lot of what I post here has to do with local politics, but you probably have the same folks in your local government.

This ain't a blog. Blogs are way too trendy for me. This is a professional political organization.